It seems like only yesterday that dozens of companies were trying to get in on the latest gold rush by trumpeting their EVs. Actually, it was roughly between 2005 and 2010, a period that preceded true EVs like the Leaf. Trying to exploit the lingering sadness of people still grieving the demise of the GM EV-1, little third-tier Chinese shit-boxes like the notorious Zap and various incarnations of Smart clones dominated way too much blogosphere bandwidth than they deserved. And where have they all gone?Well, I finally found one of the Dumbs in Eugene. And where? At a battery shop, of course. Who else can keep it in the lead-acid batteries that way too many innocent buyers managed to fry as regularly as their breakfast eggs.

Even though I just took a stab at the model year, I’m pretty sure this is a Flybo. As such, it probably was made by Shandong Hyoyun Electromobile, and is essentially the same car that Mercedes got an injunction against when it appeared, in 2007, with a very Smart-like front end. Still, a closer look reveals a number of differences in the details. I have reason to believe that several Chinese companies were making Smart “clones” that were similar only in basic shape. Unlike the Smart, which employs a very carefully engineered safety understructure, these cars are cheap fiberglass bodies atop extremely crude frames of welded channel stock that tend to rust very quickly outside of the most benign climate.

The interiors were slapped together from readily available components. I’ve seen that dash in the Zap and several other variants of these cars.

Since the Smart clones had four wheels, they were relegated to Low Speed NEV status, which in most states limits top speed to 25 mph. Take good care of it, because someday it will be a genuine relic of an era whose passing is not much-lamented.

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Maybe I’m crazy, but I’d actually like to have one of those – assuming the price was cheap enough, of course. Then again, I lived with a buddy’s Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar back in the 70’s, so this can’t be any more crude. It’d be kind of fun to have for those short trips into town that I usually take by bicycle, but have to come back with more good than I could easily load on a bike.

Horrible little shitbox. Thank heavens they died off quickly, before they killed too many of their hapless drivers, or totally poisoned the idea that we can drive well-built reliable EVs if we choose.

There are three Flybos in the EV Album (two by the same owner), with more details on what’s inside. Each of the three has a different system voltage (48, 72, 120V) and different motors (4kW DC, 6.5kW AC, 8.5kW AC), and weight ranges between 1400 and 1850 lbs. Oddly, none of these three has the same grille or rear quarter window design as the one you found here, but Flybos in Google Images mostly all look like this one. I guess they just use whatever’s available that week.

The 2008 Flybo’s EV Album page says: “Cheap China build quality but nothing is breaking yet. The company that makes this car is the builder of most all the NEVs that look like a Smart car knock-off. The powertrain for the first model was a 48 volt DC setup. Their next improvement was going to 72 volts and switching over to a 6.5kw 3-phase AC motor and regen braking. Most cars that look like this one has that powertrain. This model has a 120 volt 8.5kw 3-phase AC motor.”

There’s a Flybo thread on the DIY Electric Car blog, which begins:
“It feels a lot like a go kart when driving it. It’s super small and funny to look at (and FUN to drive!). Only draw back tho is that’s it’s real whimpy, and sluggish up hills. Just yesterday it died on me. I noticed the circuit breaker popped, and now won’t go back to the “on” position. The top is a little melted, and the wires coming out the top to the controller do not look good. Can anyone give me some advice. Everything’s in chinese.”

I’m amazed by the audacity of the Chinese by their blatant rip offs of established products, this being one of them. I had no idea the white space frame was in fact, just fiberglass stylings. Imagine the carnage should this vehicle be hit in an accident. I’d imagine if the hydrochloric acid from the ruptured batteries didn’t finish you off, the flimsy internal frame giving way, would. There was a time here when Made In Japan meant junk, that label was passed onto the Chinese. I wonder if they’ll ever escape that label.

The Chinese, Japanese and Koreans have a curious way of naming some of their vehicles. Flybo is interesting. But naming an electric car “Zap” brings visions of static electric shocks and being overcome by hydrogen gassing caused by overcharged and boiling batteries!

Not that it would feel any better (probably worse), but it’s sulfuric, not hydrochloric acid. I knew a lady who got badly burned when a bottle of concentrated sulfuric broke. It’s very slippery stuff, and she was in a bad way. Loooong time ago, and there’s safer ways to move gallons of acid nowadays (rubber buckets, actually). I’ve lost some pants to battery acid drips, but haven’t been hit on the skin.

For what it’s worth, I’m told high end Chinese machine tools are actually decently made. I think the outfits can make good stuff, when they want to. Not always incentive to do so, of course.

You do realize that there are several *different* manufacturers in China? There are the A-list folks, and there are the fly-by-night bottom feeders. These latter cannot make decent stuff if their lives depended on it. The best are really the world-standard. Just ask Apple.

+1. The Honda/Yamaha/Can-Am store I work for also carries Qingqi scooters, which are very well made, very reliable pieces of machinery. I had a 150cc model for three years, put 16,000km on it in that time with one handlebar switch failure (water got in while washing it) and a bolt holding the muffler broke.

The biggest problem we have with the Qingqi’s is the customers beating them to death. Fully 3/4ths of our customers just cannot get it thru their heads that a $1200.00 scooter needs just as regular maintenance as a $12,000 motorcycle. Plus, given the economic status of a lot of those customer, a lot of these scooters have the daylights beaten out of them in thefts and theft attempts.

On the other hand, we also got a couple of Lifan scooters, all of which had shorting problems once they were sold. We ended up replacing the customer’s scooter with a Qingqi (which are Suzuki’s built under license).

I’ve seen the aftermath of a size 8D battery explosion on some of our CG 41 foot aluminum utility boats. Thankfully no one was in the engine room when the event occured! That’s the thing that always bothered me about this so called green energy source utilizing these lead acid batteries.

I believe there was a lead acid battery powered locomotive called the Green Goat manufactured in the latter part of the 1990’s/early 2000’s. Used multiple sets of 8D batteries to power a standard EMD truck set. All of this was packaged in a standard look EMD SW type switcher. The track record was not good; several had fires and the last I heard this locomotive is no longer produced.